Six of One
by ravenclawpride
Summary: Ginny, Luna, Pansy, Cedric, Oliver and Draco are six successful best friends in their mid-20s living together in an apartment in Diagon Alley. Read all about their lives, loves and laughs during the Christmas season. AU/OOC, Crack!fic
1. Chapter 1

"I'm home! And I've brought dinner," Draco shouted as he opened the door to his apartment. Pansy looked up from her magazine as he placed the three pizza boxes on the dining table.

"Draco, you've got to stop buying takeaway every time it's your night to do the cooking!" Pansy complained.

"If I cooked, we'll all end up in St. Mungo's with food poisoning, so this really is for the best," Draco replied as Pansy, Luna, Cedric and Oliver joined him around the table. "Where's Ginny?"

"Here I am!" Ginny sang as she walked in the door, carrying half a dozen shopping bags. "Sorry I'm late, Madam Malkin's was having a huge sale!"  
She sighed as she saw the pizza on the table. "Pizza again? God, Draco, could you be any more lazy?" she said.

Draco rolled his eyes as he muttered "Accio wine," and waved his wand in the direction of the kitchen.

"Ugh, I really shouldn't be eating this," Cedric said as he blotted his slice of pizza with a paper napkin. "I'm trying to lose some weight before my date on Friday night."

"Who with?" Luna asked.

"Oh, this really gorgeous French guy I met at Gringotts," he replied.

"God, this Harry Potter. This is the second time he's been on the front page this week. So what if he saved the wizarding world and led the England Quidditch team to their victory three years running? He's still a scrawny scar-head prat," Oliver said viciously as he frowned at a picture of Harry Potter on the front of the Daily Prophet.

"Ooh, speaking of Harry, this arrived today," Luna said as she reached over to a side table and extracted a thick, fancy-looking cream envelope from a pile of parchment.

"It's Potter! Potter! Not Harry! We're not on first-name terms with that man!" Oliver yelled.

Ginny ripped open the envelope and made a face. "Mr and Mrs Harry Potter cordially invites you...ugh, gross, it's Harry and Hermione's annual Christmas ball."

The entire table groaned.

"We're not going!" Draco said firmly.

"Of course we're not! Now, who's making up the excuse? Not it!" Oliver shouted.

"Not it!" Ginny, Draco, Luna and Pansy exclaimed in unison.

"Okay, Cedric will," Pansy said. She turned to Cedric, who had buried his nose in a thick black book.

"What are you reading?" Ginny asked as she took a sip of wine.

Cedric looked up. "Oh my God. It's the best book ever. I found it in Flourish and Blotts today. It's called Twilight and it's this story about these sexy vampires...I'm so loving this Carlisle...What are we talking about?"

He saw the invitation in Ginny's hand.

"Oh! Harry's Christmas ball! He came into the salon today for a haircut and I told him we can all go," Cedric said with his dimpled smile.

Draco and Ginny screamed in horror, while Oliver looked like he was about to throw up his slice of pizza into his glass of wine.

"It's okay! It's okay." Luna reassured everyone. "Look, we'll just write Harry...er, I mean Potter...a nice little note to say that Cedric got his dates mixed up and we actually can't go!" Luna said as she scrawled on a piece of parchment. She attached it to their owl, Pooky's, leg and sent him out the window. "Problem solved!" She turned to the table and grinned.

"Thank God!" Oliver sighed.


	2. Chapter 2

Friday came way too slowly, in Cedric's opinion. He spent the morning at the spa with Ginny getting a facial and manicure, followed by a shopping trip.

Two hours before his date, he rushed out of his room, into the living room where Ginny and Draco were listening to a Quidditch match on the wireless.

"DID YOU TAKE MY PINK SHIRT?" he screamed in Draco's face.

"I don't wear pink; it goes horribly with my complexion," Draco replied calmly as he wiped spit off his cheek.

"Maybe Pansy knows, I think it was her turn to do the laundry last week," Ginny said.

Cedric sprinted out the door, before executing a perfect turn and ran back in.

"She's at the Three Broomsticks," Ginny said.

"Thanks!" Cedric yelled before running out a second time, thanking God for the fact that their apartment building was just right next door to the Diagon Alley branch of the Three Broomsticks.

After two hours of showering, scrubbing, exfoliating, shaving and primping, Cedric was still not ready. A knock was heard at the door.

"Oh God, is that him already? I'll be out in two minutes! Keep him entertained!" Cedric said, emerging from the bathroom while brushing his teeth, before running back in.

Draco and Ginny looked at each other.

"Go open the door," Ginny said.

"No. You go," Draco replied.

"You go."

"You go."

Meanwhile, Pierre stood outside the door, wondering if he came to the wrong apartment.

"Fine. Scissors, paper, rock. Loser goes." Ginny turned towards him.

"Ok. Scissors, paper, rock."

Draco played rock, Ginny played paper.

"Hah! I win! Go open the door," Ginny said.

"What? Rock beats paper! Rematch!" Draco demanded.

"OH MY GOD, JUST GO OPEN THE DOOR ALREADY!" Ginny screamed.

"Okay, okay...why do people keep spitting in my eyes?"

Draco opened the door to reveal an extremely handsome man.

"Oh! I'm sorry; I seemed to have come to the wrong apartment," Pierre said in a sexy French accent.

"No, no, you're at the right one. Come in, Cedric's just getting ready," Draco said.

Ginny took in the sight of Pierre and sat up straight on the couch. Draco smirked as he noticed.

"You do know he's gay," Draco muttered in her ear as he sat down next to her.

She shot him a killer look.

"Hi! I'm Ginny, Cedric's roommate," she said, motioning for Pierre to sit down.

He barely seemed to have heard her.

"And you are?" Pierre asked, turning to Draco.

"Draco Malfoy, one of Cedric's other roommates," he replied, extending a hand to Pierre.

"How many roommates does Cedric have?" Pierre asked, an adorable confused expression settling on his face.

"Five. There are also Luna, Oliver and Pansy," Ginny butted into their conversation.

Finally, Cedric was ready. Wearing his pink shirt, which he finally found when Luna admitted to taking it, he sauntered over to Pierre and slipped his arm through his.

"Oh, you've met my roommates," he said, as if it was the biggest surprise in the world.

Draco rolled his eyes and led Cedric and Pierre to the door.

"Bye-bye, you two," he said, pushing them out and closing the door.

He turned to Ginny.

"Come on; let's meet the others at the Broomsticks. I need a Firewhisky."

"Why the need for hard liquor?" she laughed.  
"Your brothers drove me mad at work today. We had a board meeting with potential investors and Fred and George decided to release a boxful of Pygmy Puffs in the meeting room," Draco grumbled as they exited the apartment and headed for the elevator. "I'm thinking of quitting my job."

"Oh, come on. You know you love it," Ginny replied.

He smiled. He really did enjoy his job as the Head of Marketing in Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes, which had grown into a large global company. Of course, the best perk of the job was his enormous pay check. Oh, and the rather attractive blonde receptionist.


	3. Chapter 3

The following week, Draco and Oliver were just minding their own business at home. Oliver had holed himself in his room, finishing a story for the Daily Prophet, while Draco was writing out his Christmas shopping list in the living room. There was a loud knock at the door. Draco set down his quill and went to open it. It was Pierre.

"Oh, hi. Cedric's at work...you can find him at the hairdressing salon down the street," Draco said and smiled politely before shutting the door.

Pierre held out his hand to stop the door from closing.

"I know where Cedric is. I'm here to see you," he replied smoothly before stepping into the apartment.

"Why?" Draco asked, confused.

"Because...I want to ask you on a date," Pierre said, while slipping his arm around Draco's waist.

"Whoa!" Draco said, before turning away to avoid Pierre's arm. "Um, mate, I don't think you realise that I'm straight!"

Pierre didn't seem to have heard him, and tried to kiss Draco, who let out a high pitched scream.

Oliver threw open the door to his room.

"What is going on here?" he demanded.

Draco ran over and hid behind him.

"He's sexually assaulting me!" Draco said, pointing to Pierre.

"Who is he?" Oliver asked.

"The guy Cedric went out with," whispered Draco urgently into Oliver's ear.

"Who is this man?" Pierre asked, looking at Oliver.

"This is....my boyfriend!" Draco said. "That's why you can't go out with me."

"I am not your boyfriend! Why won't you just leave me alone? SOME PEOPLE HAVE A JOB TO DO AND DEADLINES TO MEET!" Oliver screamed in Draco's face.

Pierre took one look at the screaming, red-faced Oliver, who had now proceeded to stab Draco in the chest with his quill, and exited out the door.

"I swear he tried to kiss me! And ask me on a date!" Draco told the girls that night at the Three Broomsticks.

"It's true. I was there," Oliver, who had calmed down considerably after sending off his story to his editor, said.

"You were no help," said Draco.

"I already said sorry for stabbing you! You know how I get around deadline time!" Oliver exclaimed.

"Okay, guys, stop it! How are we going to tell Cedric his sexy French boyfriend is a cheat?" Pansy asked.

"I don't know, but you better think fast, because here he comes now," Luna said.

Cedric entered the Three Broomsticks, brushing snow off his hair.

"Ugh, these Christmas crowds. Don't they have anywhere else to go?" he grumbled, flopping down in a chair.

Ginny tried to steer the conversation away from Pierre.

"So, what are we doing this year for Christmas?" she asked the rest of the gang.

"Dunno. Maybe Pierre wants to do something together. Speaking of which, he hasn't flooed or owled recently. Maybe I should floo him..." Cedric said thoughtfully.

"NO!" Draco and Oliver shouted together.

"What?" Cedric asked them, raising his eyebrows.

"Um...I mean, no. He...um, came by the apartment today and left you a message," Draco said cautiously.

"What message?" Cedric asked.

"He had to um...leave the country," Oliver continued.

"Yeah! His company transferred him," Pansy said.

"How did you know? You were at work today," Cedric asked her, narrowing his eyes.

"These guys told me!" Pansy replied, pointing at Oliver and Draco.

"So, where did he go?" Cedric asked.

"Err...Ethiopia," Draco said, trying to look innocent while he took a sip of coffee.

"He went to Ethiopia because his company transferred him?" Cedric asked.

"Yes!"

"But he's a fashion designer," Cedric replied.

"What can I say? Ethiopia needed him," Oliver said, shrugging.

Cedric seemed to be buying the story so far.

"Well, why didn't he come tell me himself? I was just in the salon down the street."

"I told him that! But he had to leave, like, immediately. Must be some huge...um fashion emergency down there," Draco said.

"Huh....okay then," Cedric said with a sad smile.

"Oh, cheer up, Ced! Tell you what; we'll go get pedicures tomorrow!" Ginny said, reaching over to pat Cedric on the knee.

"Okay!" he exclaimed, smiling broadly.

Everyone sighed in relief.


	4. Chapter 4

The gang was having dinner in the Three Broomsticks.

"What are everyone's plans for Christmas this year?" Oliver asked.

"I dunno. Are we spending it with family or staying here?" Luna replied.

"My family's all going to Potter's Christmas ball, so I'm free," Ginny said.

"My parents are overseas," Pansy said.

"So are mine," Cedric added.

"I refuse to go back to the Manor. Every year my mother invites all her friends and tries to set me up with ugly and/or fat girls. I usually get so drunk I end up sleeping with one of them," Draco said.

"My dad is in Cambodia hunting Crumpled-Horn Snorkacks, so I'm free," Luna said.

"I haven't spoken to my parents in three years, since they practically disowned me when I decided to leave Puddlemere and become a writer," Oliver said.

"Okay, guess we're all staying here," Ginny replied after a pause, during which everyone took in these revelations.

"So, I guess we'll just have dinner or something," Draco said.

"Yeah. Pansy will cook," Ginny said.

"Oh, sure, Pansy will plan and cook an entire dinner on Christmas Day. It's not like she has a life or anything," Pansy said sarcastically.

"Fine. Luna will do it," Ginny replied.

"No, no, I wanna do it." Pansy said.

After coffee, they headed back upstairs to their apartment. Cedric found a piece of parchment lying on the coffee table.

"What's this?" he asked, picking it up.

Pansy read it out over his shoulder. "Dear Residents, Please be informed that due to maintenance work, all apparating wards will be affected, and therefore apparating in or out of the building will be prohibited during the 25th of December. Our apologies for any inconvenience. Management."

"Oh, well, it's not as if we're going anywhere," Oliver said.

He suddenly remembered something.

"Oh, hey, you guys, I just remembered. My editor gave me the whole next week off, so I was thinking, we all take leave and we can just have a week of fun!" Oliver said.

"Oh, great idea! I think I'll be able to get off, the magazine just put through our December issue," Ginny said.

"If your idea of fun is lying around the house in pyjamas getting drunk, then sure, I'm in," Draco said.

"Yeah, Luna and I can close up the café for a week. We were taking Christmas and New Year's off anyway," Pansy said, looking at Luna, who nodded.

"I can get off work easy, no problem," Cedric said.

They spent the rest of the night listening to the wireless, while Pansy and Luna planned the Christmas menu and Draco and Oliver made a list of alcohol they needed to buy for their 'awesome kick-ass week of fun', as Oliver had christened it.

The next few days was spent in a frenzy of Christmas shopping, secret present buying and hiding, wrapping and the sacred event of putting up the Christmas tree. Ginny had ordered a deluxe, freshly cut tree from Belgium, and its arrival had been delayed. Finally, one night, Luna spotted something odd-shaped approaching their window, and opened it just in time for the eight enormous eagle owls to bring in the tree, which was packaged in about a million layers of paper. The six of them spent the evening decorating it.

"Argh, why didn't we just hire someone to do this?" Draco groaned as he attempted to untangle strings of Christmas lights.  
"Because, putting up a Christmas tree together is a sacred, roommate-bonding occasion," Luna replied serenely as she levitated ornaments onto the plush, green boroughs.

"I think we have all bonded enough. Don't get me started on the time when I walked in on Cedric in the showe—," Draco said.

"You were the one who didn't follow the bathroom schedule!" Cedric cut in.

"The bathroom schedule doesn't account for occasions when someone goes a little crazy in the kitchen and sends tomato sauce flying straight into your face!" Draco retorted, glaring at Ginny.

"My wand was malfunctioning," she replied simply.

They managed to finish decorating the tree without any fiascos. Under Pansy's strict supervision and perfectionist behaviour, they ended up with a beautifully decorated tree, decked in twinkling gold lights, expensive red and gold ornaments and velvet red, gold-trimmed ribbon.

"Wow, it looks great," Cedric remarked as they all stood back to admire their work.

"It really does!" Draco exclaimed as he squinted at the tree, a bottle of beer clutched in his hand.

Two days before Christmas, and the day before the gang's 'week of fun' began, Ginny arrived home from work with a visitor in tow.

"Hey, everyone, this is Patrick. He works at the magazine," she introduced, and pulled in Patrick by the sleeve. "He's muggle-born, so I asked him to help me with something..."

"Go get it," she told Patrick, who went out the door.

"Go get what? I'm a little scared," Draco, who was sitting on the couch, whispered to Luna.

"Maybe she brought home a cat!" she whispered back.

"Luna! Don't scare me like that! You know I hate cats!" Draco shot back.

Patrick returned with a large cardboard box in tow.

"It's a television! The thing Muggles use to watch....things..." Ginny explained.

"Isn't there too much magic in Diagon Alley to set up that thing?" Oliver asked, suddenly the electrical expert.

"No, it's fine. I was able to find an antenna that converts magic into electricity to power the TV," Patrick explained.

"Oohhh..." everyone nodded, impressed.

They watched Patrick set up the television, and after he finished he left, but not before Cedric made a move on him and received a reprimand from Ginny.

"How cool is this? See, I thought we could use one for our AKAWOF, because apparently this is what Muggles do when they laze around at home," Ginny said as she flicked through the channels using the remote.

"Excuse me, but did you just abbreviate Awesome Kick-ass Week of Fun?" Oliver asked incredulously. "Respect the week!"

"God, sorry," Ginny said, rolling her eyes.

"It's so shiny!" Luna exclaimed, running her hand over the top of the TV.

They spent the rest of the night engrossed in the TV, resulting in an almost-duel between Cedric and Draco over who got to control the remote.

The next day, Ginny dragged Pansy, Cedric and Draco with her to a Muggle shop in London. They left Oliver and Luna at home, who refused to leave because they wanted to watch the morning cartoons. In the shop, they rode an escalator up to the electronic department, with Cedric quivering in fright the whole time. There, Ginny pulled a list out of her bag and showed the rest of them.

"This is a list of DVDs that Patrick gave me. They're these round silver things that you put in a machine and it plays movies," she explained. "So Patrick told me these are the best movies, and also we need to buy something called a DVD player."

"Oohhh, are movies like that thing Ron took us to watch one time?" Cedric asked excitedly, who was apparently recovered from his escalator ride.

"Yes!" Ginny said.

Between the four of them, they managed to choose fifty DVDs, narrowed down from two hundred, and a DVD player. When they brought home their new purchases, Oliver surprised everyone by managing to install the player successfully, and put in a DVD to play, after following the instructions in the booklet. They settled down with bottles of butterbeer and popcorn, and watched a movie.

"Dumbledore!" Draco yelled out suddenly in the middle of the movie.

"What?!" Pansy asked.

"Sorry, it's just this Gandalf dude reminded me of someone, and I just realised who," he replied.

"Shhhh!" Oliver shushed them, and they continued to finish the movie in silence.

The next day was Christmas Eve, and the gang went shopping. Pansy took Luna and Ginny grocery shopping for the Christmas dinner while the guys went shopping for alcohol to last the entire week of fun. They watched some more TV, and then when Luna and Cedric started complaining their eyes hurt, they turned it off, and spent the rest of the night roasting marshmallows, drinking wine and singing along to the carols on the wireless.


	5. Chapter 5

The next day was Christmas, and everyone woke early in excitement.

"Merry Christmas, everyone!" Cedric exclaimed as he emerged from his bedroom.

He threw his arms around Draco and gave him a huge, wet kiss on his cheek.

"Du-uude!" Draco yelled as he pushed Cedric away.

"Oh, Draco, you know how he gets on Christmas, just humour him," Luna said.

Pansy and Oliver brought out breakfast and coffee, and everyone started eating, except for Cedric, who had started hopping excitedly around the dining table.

"Let's open presents!" he yelled.

"Calm down, mate," Oliver said calmly as he poured a cup of coffee for Cedric.

Ginny whisked it away before Cedric could take it.

"Are you mad?" she hissed. "He's hyper enough without drinking this!"

Cedric had already hopped over to the tree, and was now sitting cross-legged on the floor, ripping into his presents.

"Oh, who cares? Let's go open presents!" Draco yelled.

Soon, the six of them were sitting around the tree, waist deep in wrapping paper, admiring their presents. Pansy was just opening her last present, taking great care not to rip the paper, and painstakingly pulling all the sticky tape off carefully. The others were watching her.

"Oh. My. God. Hurry. UP!!!!!!" Oliver screamed.

Pansy finally got it open and pulled out a cashmere scarf from Ginny.

"Ginny, it's beautiful! Thank you, I love it!" Pansy exclaimed and reached over to give Ginny a hug.

Pansy folded up the wrapping paper and placed in on a pile of carefully folded paper from her other presents. She glared at the rest of the gang.

"Guys! You promised you would save all the paper, and look what you did!" she said, gesturing to all the torn paper everyone had ripped off.

"Oh, relax, Pans, I'll go buy you a brand new roll downstairs," Draco said.

After present-opening, Pansy retreated into the kitchen with Luna to begin preparing for their Christmas dinner, after giving strict instructions to everyone not to enter under any circumstances.

The rest of them stayed in the living room, watching TV. Draco was reading a new book he received from Pansy and Ginny was admiring the handbag Cedric had given her.

Soon it was lunchtime, and they were hungry.

"Draco, go get some food," Oliver said.

"And let Pansy murder me? No thanks," he replied.

"Cedric, you go," Ginny said.

"No, you go."

"Why don't we all go? Everyone run in, grab some food and run out. Don't look at anyone else. Take whatever you can. Most importantly, leave no man behind. If one of us can't get out, no one gets out!" Oliver said.

Ginny nodded with determination.

"Let's do it!" Cedric said.

"Oh, wait, we better get some safety gear. Pansy might throw things at us, and I don't fancy getting egg in my hair," Draco said.

They conjured up some gear, and soon all four were decked out in waterproof plastic raincoats, hard hats, and safety goggles.

"This should do," Oliver said and nodded his satisfaction.

They edged closer to the kitchen. Before entering, Draco signalled to the rest and they drew out their wands and entered.

"Hey, get out! I thought I told you—What the hell are you guys wearing?" Pansy asked.

"Go! Go! Go! Grab what you can! Take as much as possible!" Oliver yelled.

Ginny threw open cupboard doors and grab handfuls of stuff, and handed them to Draco, who handed them to Cedric, who ran them to the dining table, while Oliver took plates and cutlery.

Pansy and Luna stood in the middle of the kitchen watching, dumfounded. When Oliver decided they had taken enough, he yelled, "Okay, everyone out! This is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill!"

They scurried out of the kitchen, with Draco grabbing a jar of peanut butter as an afterthought.

Pansy, who was leaning against the sink, straightened out and looked at Luna with amusement.

"What the hell was that?" she asked.

Luna shook her head with a smile.

"I don't even want to know," she laughed.

Out in the living room, Ginny, Draco, Oliver and Cedric had taken off their safety gear and were admiring the food they had gotten.

"To victory!" Oliver yelled out, as they toasted with wine.

Suddenly Draco started laughing.

"What is it?" Cedric asked.

"Oh my god, you idiots! Do you know we could have just summoned some food from the kitchen and we didn't even have to go in there?" Draco said.

"Oh, god, we're thinking like muggles!" Ginny said.

"Who cares? It was fun! Let's do it again," Cedric said.

The rest laughed and dug into their well-deserved feast.

Later in the afternoon, they set the dining table for dinner, under Cedric's supervision. He had decided to use a red and gold theme for the table, to match their Christmas tree, and was taking great pains to make sure the table looked perfect.

"Draco, stop putting the glitter in your hair! Sprinkle it _artfully_ on the table, you retard!"

"Oh my god, Luna, if you break one more plate, I swear I'll hex you into oblivion!"

"What do you mean you forgot to buy the crackers?"

Finally, they managed to follow his instructions, and the table was immaculately set with their finest china and silverware, a dark red tablecloth and other various red and gold decorations. Then, they began to dress for dinner. Ginny and Cedric had convinced everyone to dress up, even though they were at home. According to Cedric, Christmas was the time to "break out the dress robes", really, he used any excuse to dress up.

After a few more little fiascos, from Luna nearly burning down the house when lighting some candles to Pansy screaming that the turkey wasn't going to be ready in time, everyone and everything was _finally_ ready. The table was set, the Christmas tree was lit and the food was cooked. Draco dimmed the lights and conjured up some floating candles while Oliver set the wireless to play softly in the background. The flames of the candles reflected off the glasses and silverware, sending sparkles of light everywhere. And, of course, everyone had dressed up and looked their best.

"Ooohh, it looks like a fairyland!" Luna exclaimed as she admired the dining room.

"We really outdid ourselves! I think we can set up a party business," Oliver said.

They sat down to dinner and admired the sumptuous feast Pansy had cooked. There was turkey, ham, roast chicken, roast potatoes, pumpkin and carrots, salad, a few more side dishes and of course, wine and champagne.

"I would like to propose a toast," Ginny said, holding up her wine glass, "To Pansy, for cooking this amazing dinner!"

"To Pansy!" everyone said.

"Also to all of you," Draco added, "If I wasn't celebrating Christmas here; I would be at the Manor with ten ugly girls, a bottle of firewhiskey and about five seconds away from killing myself."

"Oh, Draco, what a sweet toast!" Oliver said, dabbing away pretend tears.

"To us!" everyone chorused.

After dinner they levitated all the dishes to the kitchen and magic'd them to wash themselves.

Draco glanced at his watch and said, "The fireworks are starting in 10 minutes!"

"We better head up to the roof now," Ginny said.

Every year, on Christmas, Diagon Alley put on a fireworks show at 10pm, fireworks courtesy of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, and the gang had made it a tradition to watch it on the rooftop of their apartment building. So they headed up to the roof and sat down on the picnic mat Luna had brought up. Then Draco pulled out a bottle of firewhiskey and a bottle of wine from his coat.

"Woo! Now it's a party!" Cedric shouted.

The fireworks began with a bang, and they settled down to watch, passing around the two bottles.

The show was spectacular, featuring many of Fred and George's new fireworks. The show ended with a splendid display of multicoloured fireworks that spelled out a personalised message: Ginny sucks! Draco laughed hysterically.

"Hahaha! Isn't that great? I convinced Fred and George to put that in!" he said.

"Argh! I hate you! The whole bloody Diagon Alley was watching that!" Ginny screeched and drew out her wand.

"Woah, put that away, Gin," Oliver said and summoned it.

"Oh, don't worry, it was enchanted so only the six of us could see it. Everyone else just saw the message 'Merry Christmas!'" Draco said.

Ginny calmed down and Oliver returned her wand.

Pansy shivered. "It's getting cold, let's head back down."

Everyone agreed and headed to the door leading to the stairs, only to find it had been blown shut by the wind.

"Shit!" Oliver yelled. "We can't get back in!"

He tried a number of spells, but to no avail.

"No spells will work on this door. It's the security door that can only be open from the inside. The curfew ends when the sun rises, then we can use 'alohomora' to open it," Draco said.

"Well, what's the time now?" Luna asked.

"Ummm...11pm," Ginny answered.

"Guys, I think you're forgetting that we're wizards and witches who know how to apparate!" Cedric said.

"Oh yeah!" everyone chorused, except for Draco, who remembered something.

"Wait, wait, wait! What was that notice that was sent to our apartment? The one about no apparition in and out of the building on the 25th of December?" he said.

"It said no apparition in or out of the building. It didn't say anything about _within_ the building," Ginny said.

"Fine, go ahead and do it! Just don't cry when you apparate into our apartment with your arms splinched off and there's no one there to rescue you!" Draco retorted.

Ginny narrowed her eyes at him.

"He's right. If the wards are affected, I wouldn't risk it," Pansy said.

"So we're just going to stay up here until 5am?" Cedric asked.

"I'm _cold_!"

"Everyone shut up! Let me think!" Draco yelled and went to sit on the floor. Everyone followed him, and they sat in a tight circle, huddling against the wind. Pansy wrapped the picnic mat around herself while Luna cast some Warming spells.

"All we need is one person to get to the other side of the door and open it," Oliver said.

"Why don't we just blast the door open?" Ginny said.

"Did you not hear when I said no spells will work on the door?" Draco said.

"One of us could jump off the side of the building and do a cushioning charm, then come back up and open the door" Cedric suggested.

"Okay, go do it, then!" Luna said.

"No, I don't want to, I'm scared," he replied.

"Someone could do a sticking charm on their hands, and scale down the side of the building like Spiderman!" Pansy said.

"Someone's been watching too many superhero movies," Draco said.

"Or we could conjure up a rope and lower someone down to the pavement."

"We could yell out to a passer-by to come up and open the door."

"Oh, I know! We can summon a broom from the Quidditch supply shop and fly down."

"And go to Azkaban for robbery?"

"Fine, let's hear your suggestions, then!" Oliver, who had made the broom suggestion, shot at Draco.

"I say there's nothing we can do, or that I want to do, so we'll just conjure up some sleeping bags and a fire and camp out," Draco said.

"But we're all still wearing our dress robes, and they'll get all crumpled..." Ginny whined.

"Well, transfigure them into pyjamas, then!" Draco said. "God, am I the only sensible one here?"

He conjured up six thick sleeping bags, while Ginny and Pansy took Draco's suggestion and went over to the other side of the roof, where they conjured up a screen and transfigured their dress robes into pyjamas and got changed.

Oliver peered up at the sky.

"I hope it doesn't snow," he murmured.

Draco went over to stand next to him, and muttered a quick weather-check spell.

"No, it should be fine," he assured Oliver.

Cedric had conjured a warm fire and Luna arranged the sleeping bags around it. Ginny climbed into one and squirmed around, complaining, "Urgh, the floor's so hard!"

"Do a cushioning charm under your arse, then, just shut up!" Draco yelled.

"God, you're in a mood tonight, mister," Ginny muttered and glared darkly at Draco.

He rolled over in his bag, flat on his back and faced the night sky, which was dotted with stars.

Luna's voice rang out in the quiet. "Hey, everyone it's one minute past midnight. Happy Boxing Day!"

"Luna, you don't _say_ that!"

"Urgh, I can't get to sleep. Let's play a game!" Cedric said.

His suggestion was met by silence and a few snores coming from Oliver's sleeping bag.

"Guys? Guys?"


End file.
